NIGHT AND DAY

14/26

Exiting the elevator onto the fourth floor of the Main Building of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel, we walked along the corridor leading past elegant banquet and meeting rooms. In the distance, Tea Master Setsuko Tanaka, dressed in a simple and beautiful kimono, was waiting.As we approached, she bowed deeply and welcomed us to Toko-an, the tea ceremony room housed inside of the Imperial Hotel. Entering what at first appeared to be simply an ordinary door in the line of those leading to various banquet rooms, what laid beyond took my breath away: passing through the entrance to Toko-an is to enter another world.14TOKO-AN TEA ROOM